Turkey slams racist insults against club goalkeeper

By Tugcenur Yilmaz

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey on Friday condemned the racist insults against the country's football club Yeni Malatyaspor goalkeeper Fabien Farnolle.

According to diplomacy sources, who asked not to be named, said that Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called Farnolle and condemned Slovenian fans' racist behavior targeting the Beninese goalkeeper during Thursday's UEFA Europa League match.

Fabien Farnolle, 34, told Anadolu Agency early Friday that some fans of Slovenian club Olimpija Ljubljana made monkey-like sounds at him during the match.

"They simply made monkey-like sounds during the 45 minutes [of the game]," said the French-born goalkeeper, who has roots in Benin, West Africa.

"They threw something at me but it doesn't matter. But I believe making monkey sounds [at someone] is shameful," he added.

Yeni Malatyaspor advanced to the third qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League late Thursday, beating Olimpija Ljubljana 1-0 in an away game. Malatyaspor eliminated Olimpija Ljubljana 3-2 on aggregate with the victory at Stozice Stadium.

UEFA, European football's governing body, has repeatedly vowed to eliminate racism and discrimination from the game.

In recent years, UEFA released a video to raise awareness of racism, with many football stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic joining the campaign.

*Writing by Can Erozden